Faulkners Light in August - Hightowers Epiphany Essay

Light in August - Hightowers Epiphany Most criticism concerning Faulkners novel, Light in August, usually considers the character of Joe Christmas. Christmas certainly deserves the attention paid to him, but too often this attention obscures other noteworthy elements of the complex novel. Often lost in the shuffle is another character, the Reverend Gail Hightower, who deserves greater scrutiny. A closer examination of Hightower reveals Faulkners deep concern for the South and the collective suffering of its people. Hightower, through his own personal epiphany, transcends the curse under which the South has suffered for so long. Of course, the central character of Joe Christmas has dominated criticism of the†¦show more content†¦Which to me is the worst possible condition a man could find himself in--not knowing what he is and to know that he will never know. (FIU 72) According to Faulkner, then, even Christmas does not know his heritage for sure, and that lack of knowledge apparently condemns him to a racial limbo from which there is no escape. Actually, Christmas is free to define himself as he sees fit. Even if he does possess Negro blood, it is not enough to prevent him from passing as a white man, and most characters who know him believe only that perhaps his father was a Mexican. Christmas passes as a white man by posing as a black one. James Snead remarks, Joe Christmas hides his blackness behind the screen of a negros job: He pretends to slave like a negro so no one will think he is one (84). By accepting a menial labor job at a planing mill and living in a shack, he plays the role of a white man playing the role of a black man. Only when he confesses his suspicions do people see him as black: I think I got some nigger blood in me. . . . I dont know. I believe I have (LIA 216). But this confession hardly amounts to a definitive statement. By failing to provide an ultimate answer to the question of Christmas blood, Faulkner achieves what John L. Longley, Jr. considers to be one of [his] clearest strokes of genius (166). We all must confront our own racial feelings when we try to force Christmas into a category, and hisShow MoreRelated Prayer in William Faulkners Light in August Essays2217 Words   |  9 Pagesinexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.   -William Faulkner, Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, 1949      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   William Faulkner illustrates many dimensions of prayer in Light in August: his characters avoid it, abuse it, embrace it, and blame it. In every case, Faulkner portrays prayers power on the psyche. His fictional world seems Godless, yet his characters struggle to prevail through prayer. Joanna Burden, Gail Hightower